Gary Disher Kittyhawk Down

Kittyhawk Down

Gary Disher

Soho, Jul 2005, $23.00, 288 pp.

ISBN: 1569473943

Though it took him years, Melbourne Homicide Squad Inspector Hal Challis' believes he has moved past his former wife's efforts to have her lover kill him now that he is seeing newspaper editor Tessa Kane and making new friends. Still Angela keeps in contact using the threat of suicide as a blackmail ploy to get Hal to forgive her and to help get her out of her life imprisonment. Hal knows the suicide threat is real, but wants nothing to do with his ex spouse who still haunts him as he regularly visits her anyway.

Hal meets Kitty Casement, an aerial photographer who he likes in spite of his seeing Tessa. Someone threatens Kitty's life so Hal assumes she took pictures that threaten the illegal activity of the culprit although this could be part of nasty letter writer the Meddler or her spouse Rex. While searching for a missing toddler and working the latest homicide, Hal and his team struggle to identify who succeeded in ultimately killing Kitty.

Though the above paragraphs concentrate on Hal, this terrific Australian police procedural provides numerous perspectives especially that of other cops working the mundane like a teen party or the homicide. The storyline is fast-paced, but the key is that all the cast seem genuine even those that could have easily slipped into stereotypes. KITTYHAWK DOWN is a fabulous tale due to the solid caseload and strong characterizations starting with Hal whose life is moving forward one day at a time.

Harriet Klausner